Maxxzandra Ford is a nurse and the mother of two children, so she knows a thing or two about pregnancy. But last week, she gave birth to her third child -- a 14.1 pound baby boy -- and says she had no idea she was pregnant until late in the third trimester.
"No nausea. No vomiting," Ford told Fox 13. "I didn't gain any weight. I was working."
When the weight gain eventually did occur, the 26-year-old went to her doctor and learned she was already 35 weeks along.
What may be even more remarkable is the fact that little Avery's Jan. 29 birth was via a natural delivery.
"I was cussing up a storm," Ford told WFLA. "When I felt his head come out, I knew he was bigger than 10 pounds."
When the medical staff realized how big the baby was, they told her to stop pushing.
“Before I knew it, he was already coming out,” Ford told WFTS, the local ABC affiliate. “It was too late to turn back.”
While Ford knew the baby was big, even she was stunned when she was told how much little Avery weighed.
“What? My baby weighed what?” Ford said, according to the Washington Post. ”They were like, ‘Your baby is like adorably huge.’”
Avery is the biggest baby ever born at St. Joseph's Women's Hospital in Tampa and has been in neonatal intensive care since his birth.
“They can have physical issues as they are coming out," Dr. Jenelle Ferry, a neonatologist at the hospital, told The Tampa Tribune. “Some experience respiratory distress, where they have trouble breathing. Other babies have hypoglycemia, where they have low sugar levels, and some have trouble feeding.’’
The hospital said Avery is doing well and could go home soon to join his 1-year-old brother and 5-year-old sister.
A typical American baby weighs 7.5 pounds, according to What to Expect, making Avery nearly twice the size of the average newborn. But he's not even close to the biggest baby ever. An Italian baby born in 1955 weighed 22.5 pounds, according to Guinness World Records.